I've said it before(albeit somewhere else and about something completely different), and I'll say it again.
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I apologize for NOTHING!
Muwahahahahahaha!
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Disclaimer: See last chapter, fool
Claimer: Ditto, fool
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How long had they been stuck in here? Yugi didn't have a watch, but if this place was as timeless as Yami said, then it probably wouldn't be working now anyway.
Yugi might have considered asking Yami if he had any way of telling how much time had passed, but he had barely formed the thought inside his head before shoving it away. Yami already looked depressed enough from telling his story, any other reminders of how they were stuck in this freezing dark place would only make things worse.
Besides, Yugi was an optimist. He was absolutely certain that the two of them wouldn't be stuck in this place forever. Yami had gotten out once already, and Yugi had learned in science class about the way probability worked. The odds were always better for something to happen if it had already happened at least once.
Yami, for his part, was asleep. At least, he sounded asleep, and Yugi didn't want to turn around and check on the off chance that the demon WAS asleep and that he'd wake Yami up by accident. Yami deserved a good rest anyway. Not that the stubborn guy would ever admit it, but this whole mess was wearing him out.
Putting a hand to his mouth, Yugi stifled what would have been a completely inappropriate giggle. Poor Yami - now those were two words Yami would be appalled to hear used!
Yugi turned his attention to his hand, wanting to get his mind on a different subject. He'd purposely tried not to focus on this new twist of weirdness, but there it was, plain as day - now he was Yugi, the Living Lightbulb! He didn't really feel any different, but then why was he glowing?
'Maybe people normally glow in this place,' Yugi thought.
It made sense, sort of - although Yugi wouldn't swear to it, Yami's body had seemed to be outlined in some kind of bright haze at first glance in here. It was too hard to tell, now that they had been pressed together for so long. However long it really was.
'Maybe the longer you stay in here, the less glow you have,' Yugi thought.
That made sense too. But maybe it was completely wrong - maybe it was only for humans.
But Yami was still half human, wasn't he? That 'Hauru' demon who'd been after him the whole time had thought so - he'd been laughing at Yami because he was half-human.
Yugi didn't like how cruel Hauru had been.
Well sure, Yami didn't seem to like the fact that he'd been human once, but what gave anyone the right to laugh at other people anyway? Yugi had come to realize, just a few months ago, that he really disliked how people could be whenever they 'followed their basest instincts'. Since when was spite an instinct, anyway?
Back when he, Honda, and Jou had first become friends, his two former bullies had accused Yugi of being 'indecently nice' . Honda had brought it up again more recently - when Yami had first appeared at school - and had declared the newcomer an 'evil clone of indecent niceness!'
...Why did the two of them look so alike? Counting the generations that must have passed, over the five thousand years Yami had been sealed away, the odds of them being related were microscopic, and even if they were, it wouldn't make them look almost identical!
'We could be twins, but we're almost completely different,' Yugi mused, 'He's kinda moody, and I'm not. He's got magic, and I don't - well, I THINK I don't. Even though that thing with the necklace was pretty strange. Also, he likes to fight, and I hate fighting.'
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A new thought bubbled slowly to the top of Yugi's mind. He was the complete opposite of Yami…but it didn't feel bad to him for Yami to be that way, the way it felt bad for everyone else he saw.
It was almost…was almost like Yami's behavior was scratching an itch Yugi had, an itch Yugi couldn't get to and couldn't feel. Not that Yugi felt all that itchy, but that same feeling of…maybe 'happiness' was too strong a word, it was more like 'contentment'.
Whatever it was, it was the same feeling you got from finally being able to reach a particularly uncomfortable spot. And Yami, who seemed to have been angry and sad and alone for so long, had almost magically become far less stressed whenever Yugi had seen him recently. Maybe he was scratching some of Yami's itches too?
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No, that was stupid. This was a stupid analogy - it was a stupid topic, and Yugi searched for something else to focus on, something that wasn't so obviously a stupid idea. Like…what was that hard, box-like thing he thought he felt pressing into his leg?
It turned out to be an actual box. The box was inside of a pocket of Yami's jacket, but Yugi was pretty sure - he HOPED he was pretty sure - that Yami wouldn't mind if he just looked. Only a peek, for curiosity's sake!
The box was made of gold. How odd! There was a vaguely familiar eye-shape engraved into its lid and front side. Yugi wondered what Yami could possibly keeping inside a golden box like this one.
The golden box, unlike anything else in this creepy place, didn't try to float away when Yugi set it down on his legs. It clung to Yugi like he was a magnet or something, even. Determined to only have one little peek, Yugi took off the lid, and gasped.
It was a golden puzzle! Not a single piece had been fit together, but still…WOW!
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